Iraqi Parliament Action
A portion of Iraqi Parliament (mostly Shiites) voted to expel US troops from the nation but the measure was not binding. It was symbolic. So please keep that in mind as CNN and MSNBC spin it. Additionally, 5,000 U.S. troops are in Iraq at the invitation fo the country’s executive branch, the Prime Minister’s office — not Parliament. It is up to the Iraqi Prime Minister whether the troops will be expelled.
A portion of Iraqi Parliament (mostly Shiites) voted to expel US troops from the nation but the measure was not binding. It was symbolic. So please keep that in mind as CNN and MSNBC spin it. Additionally, 5,000 U.S. troops are in Iraq at the invitation fo the country’s executive branch, the Prime Minister’s office — not Parliament. It is up to the Iraqi Prime Minister whether the troops will be expelled.
As I’ve commented previously, while I support the withdrawal of US forces from the Middle East (let them kill themselves), it’s not going to happen. There are a number of reasons, all of them financial. All oil is bought and sold in dollars. It gives US currency a heavy boost. The Russians would like to see oil trades made in rubles, the Chinese in RMB, but it’s dollars. And it will remain in dollars so long as the US is dominant in the region and the world. The US no longer needs Middle Eastern oil but most of the rest of the world does, so we will remain.
Whether the US military will remain in Iraq is an open question but the Iraqis don’t want to see ISIS reborn and the Iraqi Shiites don’t want the country overrun with Iranian Shiites (different power group). A lot of them breathed a sigh of relief when Gen. Soleimani was taken out.
Tomorrow’s Blog – Coming Attractions
A comparison between the Battle of the Little Bighorn (1876) and the Battle of Islandlwana (1879). No spoilers, but I hope that you find the perspectives interesting.
One of the more enjoyable things about the Soliemani strike is watching the left do cartwheels in favor of Jihad.
It wouldn't take much to convert them to Islam, apparently, but such is the infernal logic of the Pit.
Looking forward to your take on Greasy Grass.
The Left whines about our country oppressing women because of an income gap about how poorly we treat the LGBTQ community and about us not giving terrorists their full rights, suddenly heaps praise on a regime that oppresses women, murders political prisoners and homosexuals, supports terrorists that kill women and children all over the world, and which has sworn to destroy an entire country of people because they are Jewish.
It comes down to concentration of force and being able to bring combined arms into play. You need to do both if you're to defeat a numerically superior foe.
Looking forward to an interesting commentary! Both events had the white invaders newspapers in a tizzy. Stuff like that was not supposed to happen! Maiwand was another epic Colonial defeat, as well as the years earlier retreat from Kabul. BTW, Patrick Macrory's book on the Retreat is excellent.
I'm a close student of the First and Second Afghan Wars, of the Indian Mutiny, etc. The situation in those events was not as closely mirrored as the defeats at Little Bighorn and Islandlwana. Maybe we need to examine Afghanistan more closely in coming weeks as a historical model.
Rome's complete defeat and humiliation in the Teutoberg forest (the Varian Disaster of 9 AD) and the defeat of the Crusaders at Hattin (The Horns of Hattin) are different sorts of defeats wherein the weapons of the barbarian hoard (in Germany) or the Saracens at Hattin were similar but the outcome came down to other circumstances.
The complete domination of all who met the Mongols is an equally interesting study because the Mongols were a combined arms force that relied on cavalry with light artillery/archery as a shock force, but with Chinese infantry and heavy artillery that were used artfully.
Tomorrow, though the matter of numbers in with the Zulu and the Souix Confederation come into contact with hubris and a lack of understanding of the capacity of one's enemy.
In both cases the modern army eventually won because of the American capacity to kill the buffalo, which starved the Souix and all other native peoples who relied on them (war by other means) and the British concentration of force, which defeated the Zulu army in the field. The Zulus threw themselves at a well supplied Wellington Square, anchored by artillery firing cased shot and gatling guns that played to the British strength at Ulundi until the Zulu army was essentially unable to remain in the field as a viable threat.
Looking forward to your take on the two battles tomorrow. Isandlwana, as well as its follow up at Rorke's Drift, aren't as well known here as Custer's debacle was, and that's a shame. Concerning Rorke's Drift, the last survivor on the British side was Colour Sergeant Frank Bourne, who was much younger than the actor who portrayed him in the film He lived to 1945 In 1936 he was interviewed for a radio program. This is the transcript of that interview.
rorkesdriftvc.com/defenders/tran.htm
Before coming here, I just posted a few thoughts on Iraq kicking us out.
I really don't want to post the thoughts as a comment here.
But I will.
Say we get asked to leave Iraq.
Iraq puts a lot of oil on the market.
Iran, not so much, due to the sanctions.
Will Iran take control of Iraq?
If Iraq becomes an Iranian subsidy, do the oil profits go to Iraq or Iran?
Has the Iraqi Parliament considered this?
If those revenues go to Iran, watch the sanctions get expanded to Iraq.
Not a smart move for those Iraqi Parliament members next election.
It would also affect global oil prices. Does that hurt America? Our allies?
Or would the Sauds increase production (my guess)?
I doubt Iran is going to be allowed to skirt sanctions by laundering money through Iraq.
So. Maybe Iraq goes full sovereign, rejects Iran (and us) and life goes on.
Iran stays constrained on a global scale.
Iraq may become an overt radical Islamic nation but isolated.
Maybe they go back to opposing Iran like they did under Saddam.
We can only hope.
I lied.
We can pray.l.
It was one of those battles that will "live" for a long time. Looking forward to your take on things tomorrow.
I responded on your blog.
I'm dancing around with some people in Irbil (Northern Iraq) about setting up a bank in that location as part of my consulting business. Thus, I'm dialed in to the situation indirectly – but personally. I don't know what will happen with this engagement because I haven't been paid yet. And the tension in Iran and Iraq will complicate everything,
Having said that, I don't think that even the Shiites in Iraq want Iran to take over. It means the end for them and they know it. The situation in Iraq has improved, and a sovereign Iran in the driver's seat would reverse that.
>>BREAKING<<
NY Times — BAGHDAD — Iraqi protesters in the southern city of Najaf burned down the Iranian Consulate there on Wednesday night in an outburst of anger at Iran, witnesses said.
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